Well, here we go then. Money on Kubica getting top ten in Australia?

A Max/Red Bull/ Honda/ Suzuka win would be epic. But no, Ham for the season, he and Merc seem right. If they’ve lost their way they”ll get back.

Pretty safe bet that Merc and Ferrari will be at the front. My money’s on Hamilton, mostly because he seems to have Bottas whipped whereas Vettel may be destabilized by having a competitive teammate. I’m picking Renault for third because I can’t see the Honda engine being reliable enough and I think Verstappen will implode when things don’t go well whereas Ricciardo and Hulkenberg will steadily accumulate points. Hard not to see McLaren and Williams improving massively, so no idea who will come in from 5th downwards.

WDC Hamilton, after this season Vettel has too much ground too make up, plus he’s got a new team mate who may prove a bit difficult to contend with…

Red Bull / Honda possibly up there, def interesting if the power unit delivers..

Ferrari will implode, not until they UnItilan management structure they succeed.

Renault will be knocking on the door, but Ricardo will be left wandering what if…..

Looking forward to Ferrari fireworks. Hopefully it will be like Hamiltons first season. But no change in the WC.

If I predict anything it’ll be wrong but here’s what I’d like to happen.

Hamilton wins 6th WDC.

Vettel struggles with Ferrari and decides to move teams – I don’t like him but I just don’t think Ferrari is good for him.

Kubica gets top 10 finish in first race because a) Williams have turned things around and b) Kubica is a legendary driver who gets things out of cars no one else seems to be able to

Verstappen has an incident and he ends up lamping someone which gets him banned from a race. He comes back a better driver as he’s a) learnt to control his temper and b) admits he’s wrong sometimes and learns rather than dismisses criticism.

Honey Badger beats the Red Bulls on a regular basis.

LeClerc gives Vettel a run his money and wins a race or two.

Kimi, well, just turns up and is 100% Kimi. Would be nice to see Sauber get a race win with him.

The Honda engine power and reliability is really going to affect how Red Bull do. They are all hyping it up how amazing it’s going to be. It hasn’t worked out for Torro Rosso this year but everyone seems to be ignoring that fact. Torro Rosso results for the last 4 seasons:

2015 – 7th – 67pts – Renault engine
2016 – 7th – 63pts – Ferrari engine
2017 – 7th – 53pts – Ferrari engine
2018 – 9th – 33pts – Honda engine

So, half as many points as when they had Renault power.

My money would be on Hamilton again for WDC. Bottas knows his place and Vettel will be either straight beaten by LeClerc or will generally lose points through red mist moments and spins like this year.

Hamilton for WDC, Mercedes for constructors.

<span style=”font-size: 12.8px;”>Williams and Mclaren to be fighting out for last spot as both cars will be dogs.</span>

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Ferrari to have a good car, but Vettel squabbling with it-is-i-leclerc will lead to tears.</span>

Oh, and Danny Rics engine will go pop regularly.

I’d love to be wrong, but I think that Kubica is really going to struggle….. didn’t Sirotkin beat him in testing this time last year? Ocon to replace him mid season…..

Hard to see past Hamilton really isn’t it? Unless Vettel ups his game, which didn’t really happen the last time he had a quick teammate.

Hamilton and Merc to clean up.

Battle for 2nd between Max and Bottas

LeClerc to take Vettel to the cleaners, who will then throw a strop and go back to RB for 2020.

Ricciardo to be best of the rest

Kubica is a legendary driver who gets things out of cars no one else seems to be able to

Apart from Hamilton, Alonso, Ricciardo, Verstappen…

Problem is, even if Kubica is as good as he was, it’s going to be like Alonso in the McLaren driving the wheels off it just to stay ahead of a rookie in a Sauber.

Bottas won’t see the season out – replaced by Ocon before Silverstone.

Having a wing-man doesn’t suit Mercedes – they need two consistent winners.

Can’t see Vettel going back to RBR – Max is Marko’s new favourite and is there for a while (unless Honda performance is properly bad).  I doubt RBR will remain consistently in the top tier either – Honda may deliver some power but reliability is still looking flaky so they’ll be starting from the back end of the grid a fair bit.

I reckon Bottas will see the season out as long as he can take points off the Ferraris.  If Ocon gets a drive my bet is Williams after one or t’other of their signings fails to perform.

I’d love to be wrong, but I think that Kubica is really going to struggle….. didn’t Sirotkin beat him in testing this time last year?

He only just beat him by a tiny margin and Sirotkin was bringing loads of money to the team. I think I read that Kubica was now much better and was bringing some sponsorship from Poland now too. It’ll be good to watch as a lot of drivers really rated Kubica, who knows what he will be able to do once he gets into race situations.

Its such a good positive thing to happen and will really give some other disabled drivers hope for the future (Billy monger maybe but he hasn’t proved himself in F1 like Kubica did).

From what I’ve read Kubica hasn’t been given light qualifying spec car yet – he’s mainly been trudging around doing data work.

Problem is, even if Kubica is as good as he was, it’s going to be like Alonso in the McLaren driving the wheels off it just to stay ahead of a rookie in a Sauber.

Agreed, that’s why I made point a) in my post recognition that Williams need to turn things around a bit as well.

I would love to see Williams win a race again before Frank passes away, he literally lives for F1 and if the team died I reckon he would too. There’s a great moment at the end of the Williams documentary (Amazon Prime or Netflix) where he is falling asleep in his wheelchair and he snaps awake and alert when an F1 engine bursts into life. It wouldn’t surprise me if he has bits of a Cosworth DFV engine keeping him alive.

Proper owner run teams are in fear of becoming history which would be a real shame. It’s those teams that often give some of the greatest drivers their chances in F1.

It wouldn’t surprise me if he has bits of a Cosworth DFV engine keeping him alive.

I heard its a V10 Renault

Williams, being a smaller team, may well manage to turn themselves around faster than Malaren.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mc at the bottom next year.

I hope Williams do manage a significant improvement.  A few years ago they had some success going for a low drag concept that helped them on the faster circuits .I wonder if the new front wing regs may encourage a similar philosophy.

Hopefully the new In wash front wings will mean they can all start using their own wind tunnels again.

I like Sebastian Vettel, I think he’s funny, articulate and can both race and be ruthless.  BUT and it’s a massive BUT – he can’t drive a bad car or one that doesn’t deliver power in a very linear way.  Hamilton can and has.  Not consistently like Alonso, but he can do it.  Hamilton struggles when he loses front end grip and can’t predict the turn in, that’s why he struggles in the wake of some cars.  The upcoming rule changes and tyres should favour Hamilton.

I might struggle to follow the ’19 season as I’ll only have access to C4’s coverage (I tend to lose interest in watching a race if I find out the result beforehand!) but I would love to see:

Williams have a resurgence back up to the midfield.  They are in a horrible place right now and as the last of the historic privately owned teams they need to survive.  It also helps I’ve been a lifelong fan of theirs.

Ferrari implode as LeClerc shows up Vettel.  Ferrari are just too cocky for their own good, living off their historic status and Vettel is just plain annoying.  Why the team insist on sabotaging their own efforts every year is unfathomable and Vettel is just hot-headed when things don’t go his way.

Merc must have some genuine competition from at least 2 teams otherwise they will win again, they’re just too good a team to not get it right over the course of a full season.  SAdly I only see Ferrari and possibly RedBull step up but Ferrari will implode (see above) and RedBull will be hampered by the Honda engine.

I hope I’m wrong but it doesn’t look great for anyone else but Mercedes unless the rule tweaks allow on team to find a hidden performance advantage.

McLaren hit rock bottom forcing Zak Brown out and allow them to rebuild properly.  Their problems all lead back to him and he has done nothing to change anything the whole time he has been there.  They desperately need someone Ron-like to make the team work again.

“Its such a good positive thing to happen and will really give some other disabled drivers hope for the future (Billy monger maybe but he hasn’t proved himself in F1 like Kubica did).”

Don’t forget that Billy fought for the ban on disabled drivers be able to race a single seater to be overturned, it has helped Kubica’s return by removing a block that was previously there (Renault were concerned about his self-extraction times, as were the FIA).  With power steering and brakes there is really no reason either of their injuries should prevent them both racing to their full potential.

Here goes:

Leclerc to podium on his first race for Ferrari.

Alonso to make a “guest” substitute this season in a much improved McLaren.

Verstappen publicly berates Honda for poor driveability and reliability.  Verstappen and Red Bull part company for 2020.

Bottas will do something.  Anything.

Kubica makes a habit of wrestling a Williams into the top ten during Q3.

George Russell or Lando Norris score a podium.

It wouldn’t surprise me if he has bits of a Cosworth DFV engine keeping him alive.

Lovely sentiment. 🙂

They desperately need someone Ron-like to make the team work again.

+1

Sadly I can’t see it happening.

Oh, and I doubt I’ll watch any coverage next year.

I agree with what PJM1974 says regarding Max. He’s been told continually over the last few years that he’s going to be WC. He’s getting impatient. He can see Leclerc coming in and getting a drive in a (potentially) WC winning car. If the Red Bull isn’t competitive, he’ll be looking to move. I don’t think Vettel will stay in F1 if he doesn’t win the WC in 2019, so there may be a seat at Ferrari.

Perhaps we should set up a sweep stake on how many cars Verstappen hits during the season. He seems incapable of overtaking anyone without hitting them.

Had Max down as swapping to Merc to partner Ocon, and Lewis to the Ferrari. But it all really depends on who bail before the new rules.

Also depends on what RedBull can do with the Honda. It can’t be *that* bad? can it?  And Ricciardo will surely have better reliability in a works Renault rather than rebadged Renault with duff clutch etc.

Williams-Honda for 2020? or will they be the next team to file for administration (sadly).  Hope I’m wrong there.

Also depends on what RedBull can do with the Honda. It can’t be *that* bad? can it?

As bad as the McLaren-Honda? Probably not, but the Honda guys seem to have a habit of promising the world and underdelivering so nothing would be surprising.

Williams-Honda for 2020? or will they be the next team to file for administration (sadly). Hope I’m wrong there.

Williams reports are on their website (https://www.williamsf1.com/pages/corporate/investors/financial-reports) and considering their recent form they’re not in bad financial shape at the moment.  There will probably be some form of release settlement from Stroll which will help (they got money by selling Bottas to Merc too) but they’re losing their title sponsor next year and I haven’t heard much about a replacement apart from it not being Rich Energy.

Merc were repotedly looking to adopt a B team possibly along the Ferrari/Haas model so with Stroll’s buyout of RPFI Williams are the only current Merc powered team who might be in line for that, but they have siad they’re not interested.  It’ll be interesting to see how that lack of ienthusiasm plays out when their payments from FOM start to dwindle due to their recent results.

So I’d be suprised if they jumped ship to Honda – they’re desperate for results and if they’re switching to a new PU that decision would need to be taken by about April to allow the 2020 design sufficient time.  That means the Honda would need to be seriously impressive from day 1 of testing to give them the confidence to do that, plus of course the finances would need to make sense and Honda won’t be giving their PUs away any more.

SHOCK NEWS!!!!

Lance Stroll confirmed at Force India next year,  Nice of his dad to give him his Xmas present early.

They desperately need someone Ron-like to make the team work again.

Been reading Andreas Seidl of Porsche LMP1 fame is been lined up for a top job at McLaren.

I’d love for Kubica to make a fairytale return to podium, or even just get the most out of the Williams, even by F1 driver standards he’s got such amazing mental strength to make a come back from such a horrible accident and so many years out of F1.

I think Grosien deserves a decent car again, he’s seems to be crashing a lot again trying to make his car faster than it is.

As for WDC, are there many reg changes for 2019? It’ll be Ferrari v Merc again with RedBull a distant 3rd or possibly miles ahead if Honda finally produce a decent engine, I can’t see it being in between.

As for my personal 2019 F1 ‘experience’ I suspect I’ll watch the opener (it’s only highlights on C4 now isn’t it?) with great anticipation, by the 2nd race I’ll skip quali, by race 3rd I’ll only watch the start and end and the rest of the season I’ll read about it in the news and then decide if I can be bothered to watch the race, and then won’t.

Its pretty staid at the moment, the top team too dominate and the same guys who’ve been winning for the last 10 years are still winning and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Maybe for fickle fans like me a massive over-haul every 5-10 years is what’s needed.

It would be a fairy tale if Kubica found himself on the podium, but it’s unlikely.

The car would need a big leap up the field to just be reasonable, watching him drive last week showed how his injuries are affecting his driving, and he has a young hungry team mate who will want to make his mark.

I can’t see it.

There’s only one winner next year and that’s Hamilton, he owned this year’s championship with for most of the season was the second quickest car. Ferrari/Vettel made to many errors.

Bottas will cement himself as a number 2 for Hamilton, leclerc in think will push Vettel but he’ll maintain number one status.

Unless Honda pull off a miracle off season Redbull may really struggle and Renault, if they get their act together may trouble them. Redbull have the right rear end philosophy that Honda struggled with in the ‘size zero’ McLaren but then the chassis is always excellent. With the rule changes a curve ball may be shown but it’ll have to be mighty curvy to topple Hamilton gaining number 6.

Lewis to the Ferrari.

I can’t ever see that happening. I think Lewis needs to right team to flourish – was so much better at Merc than Mclaren as he didn’t have to do all the promo stuff. In Ferrari you’ll always be second to the team itself – they don’t reallt care about the drivers all they want to do is win but they don’t realise that having a strong team makes great drivers even better.

I cant imagine Merc would let Lewis go without a fight anyway, he probably sells more cars for Merc just by being who he is than any amount of promo work could ever do on its own. Just in the USA market their sales must have increased enough to pay his wages as he’s really popular over there as well as in the UK.

Kvyat’s return to Toro Rosso had passed me by. Interested to see how that goes!

“Been reading Andreas Seidl of Porsche LMP1 fame is been lined up for a top job at McLaren.”

That could be good, as long as Zac is pushed aside that is.

Vijay Mallya should be extradited to India, London court rules

Schumacher is 50 today. I hope that in some way he can enjoy it.